Acetone testing in Arizona being researched (from a friend). Any chemist major here can vouch the validity in using this chemical in fuel?
An interesting email came across the “Friends of Triumph” listserv (only people who race Triumphs) today from a guy saying that he had heard about this and wanted to hear from anybody on the list if it was valid or not. I followed the link and read the information. It certainly sounded like typical “snake oil” to me. Similar to those late night informercials that tout increasing your gas mileage with either some fuel/oil additive, some device to smooth air flow to the carb, etc…
Well another racer on the list responded with…
"…it works…
okay, I’ll come out of the closet. I saw this several months ago & decided to try it. A few people at work have tried it with good results.My personal experience is a big jump in mileage on a 92 chevy cavalier, huge jump in mileage on the suburban, and 15% or so increase in a 2000 subaru.
I have been reluctant to recommend it, as so far I cannot vouch for it being safe with sensors etc. The guys at work with newer vehicles report no damage to sensors, computers etc. I have a total of maybe 10,000 miles on the experiment and so far have no negative effects, but I cant vouch for any long term problems, benefits etc.
The way I read it, quantities added vary per vehicle. I started with 1 oz per 5 gallons of gas. I am now experimenting on the cavalier with 1 oz per 7.5 gallons. I could give results in another 1000 or so miles if you want.
The way I see it, try it at your own risk… but it seems to be good for me so far… (but then I’ve heard / used that line before too;>)"
With that “endorsement” I am going to give it a try in our Suburban. I have detailed mileage data on the Suburban that I started keeping on 9/4/2004 for every mile (just under 9,900 miles) and tank of gas (32 fill-ups) put in the vehicle so I should be able to tell in the next month or so if it has the effect described. Right now the average for this 3/4 ton 4-wheel drive 'Burb is about 8 mpg over that time period. Looking at the graph on the site I figure I am going to start the experiment with 1 oz in 5 gallons like the guy in the answer above did. Our average fill-up is about 38 gallons so I will add 7 oz every time we fill up.
The original email provided a link to this site.
http://www.pureenergysystems.com/news/2005/03/17/6900069_Acetone/
I’ll let you know what I discover…
Acetone test interim report
Well, not a full report but here is what I have seen so far running a mix of 1 oz of Acetone to 5 gallons of gas (8 oz to a tank in the Suburban and 5 oz in the Van). The gas being used is the Regular grade found at the local Sam’s Club.
The previous few fill-ups in the Suburban (1994 3/4 ton 454 with 95,000 miles) resulted in the following mpg readings:
MPG Miles driven on that tank
9.93 320
7.54 253.9
8.41 289.7
7.18 249.6
7.36 291.2
7.61 292.9 New Tires
7.27 286.8
6.79 195.3 Tune-up
7.18 276.1
Avg: 7.69 272.8
Putting in Acetone at the half tank mark on the Suburban resulted in a mpg of:
8.47 340.4
Almost an extra 60 miles with only adding Acetone at the 1/2 tank level. Be nice to see if we get a full 120 miles (or more) with the full tank.I will be very interested in seeing what the mpg is after adding to a full tank. If the supposition holds at the completion of this empirical test we could see some significant mileage gains and a resulting savings in real dollars. Even taking into account the $5.00 cost of the 32 oz. can of Acetone. If this tests does bear out I will find some larger containers of acetone so that I can further reduce the cost (.15 per oz = $1.20 for the Suburban and .75 for the Van) for the additive. With gas at Sam’s Club costing $2.66 per gallon (as of last night) an extra 120 miles per tank would be equal to at least $37 or a net savings of at least $32 a fill-up. Taking the 36 times I filled up the Suburban over the past twelve months that equals out to a savings of over $1,100 in just one vehicle!
Since it is cooler weather now Lori is not running the A/C (as of this week) like the above tank readings would need to take into account so I went back to an equal number of recordings from this past winter/spring (between 12/24/04 - 3/31/05) and saw the following readings:
9.07 347.5
8.90 356.9
9.21 374
8.82 360
9.42 376.4
8.13 314.5
8.77 304.3
9.37 325.6
9.26 309.3
Avg: 8.99 340.9
So the last recorded mpg (while running the A/C) is dead-on with readings taken during the time of the year when the A/C was not being used!
I have not kept mpg records on the Van (1989 GMC Safari 6 cyl with 140,000 iles) but because the Porsche is in the body shop I have been driving it the past week. I kept records on the first full tank without Acetone and rcorded:
17.04 419.3
I refilled the Van last night an added Acetone in the same ratio and will see what the mileage is with this tank next week when I fill up again.
One thing that was IMMEDIATELY noticeable however with both the Suburbanand the Van was that they idled noticeably “quieter” and acceleration from a stop was significantly smoother. I first noted this in the Suburban when first put the acetone in it and was waiting anxiously to see what effect it would have on the Van. Lori took Tyler over to the Church parking lot the other day to let him practice driving and we had not said anything to him about adding anything to the fuel. He commented to Lori that the Suburban seemed to accelerate faster than it had before.
The next tanks will be dropping the ratio to 1 oz to 7 gallons as the rcommendations say that different ratios will have different effects ncluding decreasing the mileage when the ratio is too high.
So nothing truly definitive so far but it certainly does look promising.
Well first people were using xylene(paint thinner) as race gas + one cap full of marvil mistery oil = a nice 105/110 blend. Now Acetone.
very intresting to say the least
